“One day Bird had approached his father with this question; he was six years old: Father, where was I a hundred years before I was born? Where will I be a hundred years after I die? Father, what will happen… — Kenzaburō Ōe Copy Share Image
“Bird, hesitating, recalled a line from the English textbook he was reading with his students; a young American was speaking angrily: Are you kidding… — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
“In introducing himself, he had said, "I'm the father," and the doctors had winced. Because something else must have echoed in their ears- I'm… — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
“I thought about death and was gripped by feelings which choked my chest and made my throat dry, a sudden pushing and shoving in my guts. It was a sort of chronic ailment I had. Once that feeling and that agitation of my whole body had begun, I wouldn't be able to shake it off until I got to asleep.… — Kenzaburō Ōe Copy Share
To be upright and to have an imagination: that is enough to be a very good young man. — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
The writer's job is the job of a clown …the clown who also talks about sorrow. — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
If any suffering was fruitless it was the agony of a hangover; what he suffered now could not expiate suffering of any other kind. — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
The ambiguous orientation of Japan drove the country into the position of an invader in Asia. — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
“If I'm a monster then I want to be a real monster. I'll become a monster and explode.” — Kenzaburō Ōe Copy Share Image
Paradoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history… — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
It is the second job of literature to create myth. But its first job is to destroy it. — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
In the recent years there have been criticisms levelled against Japan suggesting that she should offer more military forces to the United Nations forces… — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
There's no better reading experience than going to the place where a text was written. — Kenzaburo Oe Copy Share Image
